ACIM 5. III. The Guide to Salvation, P 1, 2, 3. The way to recognize your brother is by recognizing the Holy Spirit in him.
ACIM Chapter 5. III. The Guide to Salvation, P 1, 2, 3
III. The Guide to Salvation, P1
1 The way to recognize your brother is by recognizing the Holy Spirit in him. I have already said that the Holy Spirit is the bridge for the transfer of perception to knowledge, so we can use the terms as if they were related, because in His Mind they are. This relationship must be in His Mind because, unless it were, the separation between the two ways of thinking would not be open to healing. He is part of the Holy Trinity, because His Mind is partly yours and also partly God’s. This needs clarification, not in statement but in experience.
Jesus says the way to recognize my brother is by recognizing the Holy Spirit in him. So how do I do that? What does that mean? I do this by seeing past the ego manifestations. When I see his body with my body’s eyes, I see his behavior. I hear his words. But with my heart, I see the love he is. With my heart, I see that his behavior may represent his ego thinking, but that does not fool me. I know he is not his ego.
I know his attacks and defenses are just calls for love, and behind them, the Holy Spirit resides in his mind, unaffected by the ego. When I hear his words, and the Holy Spirit in my mind interprets them for me. The Holy Spirit in my mind bridges the imagined distance between brother and brother. I am shown the truth that remains unaffected by ego confusion.
Fooled by My Eyes
When I look with my eyes at my brother, I think he is different from me. I perceive a body that is a different gender with all that has come to mean to me. I see this brother as sometimes friend and sometimes enemy. But through the Holy Spirit in our minds, I see past my own perceptions by allowing them to be corrected so they are nearer to the truth. I begin to see our shared being rather than our separate bodies.
The Holy Spirit is a mystery to me. I have ways of thinking of It, but not a real understanding. That doesn’t matter. I don’t need to understand with my thinking mind. What I need is the experience of the Holy Spirit. I get this experience each time I look at another and ask to see him differently. I get this experience of the Holy Spirit each time I have a thought and question it, turning within to Him for a true answer rather than relying on the ego mind.
III. The Guide to Salvation, P 2
2 The Holy Spirit is the idea of healing. Being thought, the idea gains as it is shared. Being the Call for God, it is also the idea of God. Since you are part of God it is also the idea of yourself, as well as of all His creations. The idea of the Holy Spirit shares the property of other ideas because it follows the laws of the universe of which it is a part. It is strengthened by being given away. It increases in you as you give it to your brother. Your brother does not have to be aware of the Holy Spirit in himself or in you for this miracle to occur. He may have dissociated the Call for God, just as you have. This dissociation is healed in both of you as you become aware of the Call for God in him, and thus acknowledge its being.
First, I am reminded that the Holy Spirit is an idea. It is the idea of healing and the idea of God. I know that I act like the Holy Spirit is a person in my mind. I call on Him to correct my thinking and heal my mind. But I am really calling on the Idea of God to do this for me. At first, it was just more comfortable for me to think of the Holy Spirit as a Him because this was something I could relate to. Now as I begin to understand that everything is an idea, and as I realize that God is not what I thought It was, I don’t need the Holy Spirit to be a He, but it is just a habit that I continue.
Understanding Is Not Possible, but Experience Is
I don’t think it is important that I understand the Holy Spirit or God. I doubt I could, anyway. What I know is that the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to guide me back to God by clearing the confusion from my mind. What is important for me to know is that the Holy Spirit is increased and strengthened as It is shared.
I share the Holy Spirit through being willing to see the Holy Spirit (God) in my brother despite his dreams of being little. When I do that, my mind is healed, and it doesn’t matter if the other person is aware of what is going on. We both heal at the same time with no further effort or understanding on our part.
I share the Holy Spirit as I open my mind to guidance and then write about or tell others about my experience. I share the Holy Spirit with my friend when I look at her ravished body and know that it is meaningless. She is healed, and her healing will wait for her until she is ready for it. I share the Holy Spirit when I notice I am judging someone and change my mind, allowing the Holy Spirit to heal more of the mind. I share the Holy Spirit in ways I am not even aware of as my willingness grows and the desire to share grows with it.
III. The Guide to Salvation, P 3
3 There are two diametrically opposed ways of seeing your brother. They must both be in your mind, because you are the perceiver. They must also be in his, because you are perceiving him. See him through the Holy Spirit in his mind, and you will recognize Him in yours. What you acknowledge in your brother you are acknowledging in yourself, and what you share you strengthen.
It has been a few years since I have had a serious grievance against anyone. I mean the kind of grievance that I just can’t bring myself to let go. And many more years since I had a grievance I was determined to keep. But I remember exactly how it felt. Looking back on it, I am astounded at how hard I had to work at being aggrieved.
I would see someone else as guilty, and then I had to hold that grievance in my mind, or I would forget to be angry. I had to keep coming up with stronger reasons he was guilty, or my grievance might start to slip away. My word, that was a lot of work. And no matter how well I did the job, I just felt worse and worse. I couldn’t make him guilty enough to make me feel good.
Understanding the Real Problem
Then I learned enough to know that holding the grievance was the problem. I needed to forgive if I wanted to be happy. This was better. Sometimes it still took a good bit of time to talk myself into it. But at least I knew the direction to go and that I wanted to go there. I fully understood that as I was imagining I was hurting the other person, it was really myself that I was hurting. I was conflicted about what I wanted to come from this. So I was uncertain if I wanted to let the other guy off the hook. But I knew I wanted to be free and I couldn’t seem to have both. The whole process felt very difficult and frustrating.
Eventually, I understood that we are so connected that it is virtually impossible to hurt someone else and not hurt myself. It was impossible to see something in my brother I didn’t see in myself. Forgiveness became a simple process of realizing I was confused and choosing to allow my mind to be healed. On the rare occasions when I was conflicted about forgiveness, I still understood that it was inevitable, and I moved as quickly as possible toward that outcome. Now, I don’t hesitate to forgive. Anything else would be ridiculous.
Two Perspectives
This paragraph reminds me that there are two diametrically opposed ways of seeing my brother. And they are both in my mind. I am very familiar with the ego way of seeing. That perspective has been front and center for almost all of my life. It is encouraging to remember that the truth is also in my mind. I just have to look past the ego version to see it. It is right there, patiently waiting for me to notice it. And the more often I take the trouble to shift my vision and see the truth, the stronger it becomes in my mind. And because of the shared mind, my brother is healed along with me.
To read Pathways of Light insights on this section, CLICK HERE.